Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-07
The Texas Express OH The st. Louis,
IRON Mountain and Southern Goes
Through TrestIe.
Traiumcn Badly mi Gred aud Many Pas
seugers Narrowly Escape Drowning.
The Mail all Lost.

Llhl L}-uluc ullCs oOulu Va lOICj IllllC
after 10 O'clock, and was occasioned
by the giving way under g
train of the trestle which crosses Joachim
creek at thai point. The train was the
Texas express, and consisted Of baggage,
express aud mail cars, q smoker, two
passenger coaches and four sleepers, car
ryIng about $50 passengers. A heavy
rain hSd fallen all day, and the creek was
much swollen. At Hemitite, the first
station this side of the trestle, the en-
gineer received orders to run
cautiously, as the rain had been
heavy and the creek was out of its
banks. Engineer Kelly says he ran slow
beyond thai point and both ne and his
fireman, Willism Hatch, watched the
track very carefully. rs he approached
the trestle Kelly observed that tae track
was entirely straight aud level, showing
nothing wrong, and he went on without
the slightest fear or hesitation, but
when MS engine reached about the
middle of the trcstlework he
felt the whole structure sinking beneath
him. In an instant he opened the valve
operating the air brakes and brought the
train to so quick a stop that the front end
of enc of the cars was crushed in by the
SuuNlE II SlIOShs HIS SaNCN wv NStAS--SS'
but the baggage. mail, express and smok
ing cars went into the raging torrent be-
low. carrying with them ali the men on
board. Engineer Kelly and Fireman
Hatch went down with the
engine and were submerged
in the flood. Kelly, in his struggles to
free himself, found one Of his feet was
held fast, bur at the same instant aud
lust as he reaiiZ3 ID ne must drown, the
engine turned over, his foot was re-
leased and he came to the surface SeiZ
ing passing log he chung TO it desper-
ately and was swept down the torrent
and lodged against = tree $50
yards below. With scarcely strength
enough to move, he claSped his legs and
arms around the limb of q tree and be-
came unconscious, end was not restored
untii two or three hours after ne had been
taken from the tree, when he found him
self kindly cared for in house in Vic
toria. His face and hands are severely
cut, two of His toes cut from one of his
feet, and he is very badly bruised in va
rious parts of the body. He will recover.
Fireman Hatch WAS carried about 500
wards down the stream and lodged in 8
mass Of crush or drift, and was rescued
soon after the flood subsidized. He IS q
good deal bruised but not seriously hurt.
The postal car was swept away some
distance, and as the water ran through
it from end 10 end the mail was washed
out and is now scattered over miles
Of territory or imbedded in
the mud of the creek. II is
regarded as an almost total loss, the
whole of it being completely soaked and
the addresses OF The letters being obliter
fer and Ryan were badly bruised and al
most drowned, and being stripped fol
work they lost all clothes, gold watches
and about $3.50 in money, which Were
carried away by the flood.
TIE smoker, which is said to have con
tanned some twenty passengers, was
swept down about 800 feet below the
trestle and al! OF its occupants believed &c
have been saved. They succeeded in get.
ting outside Of the car and chung to its
top until they were rescued. There is
some doubt about the baggageman and
express mes enger being saved, bu,
late dispatch from the wreck
says that none of the trainmen
were lost. Last night special train was
sent from hare between y and O'CLOCK
conveying physicians and medical sup,
plies. This train returned this afternoon
and brought number of passengers and
trainmer who did not care to wait at the
wreck until the trestle WAS repaired. a.
the water subsidized sufficiently larg" gang
was put to work and the new crossing
finished this afternoon, and trains are
now running regularly. The cause OF
the unprecedented flood is believed to be
a cloud burst which took place late in the
evening, and filed the creek which runs
between the rugSid hills for miles so full
that it became raging torrent, with Il
current of over twenty miles per hour.
and swept everything before it
A full list Of casualties cannot be OBJ
tanned tonight, but aside from Henry
Byron of jamestown, n. Y, who was
found drowned in the smoker, and
Byrnes, a brakeman, WHO had his foot
dislocated, no one than those mentioned
were in any way seriously injured. Nearly
one-half of those in the smoking car lost
most of their clothing, it being torn from
their persons either. in getting out of
the car or by the rushing water through
which they were dragged ashore by
ropes.
A farmer named Andrew whitehead of
Bayley did heroic work in saving pas
sengers, he having swan several times to
the smoker and each time returned with
one of the unfortunates who were cling
ing to the roof of the car. Several OF the
passengers in the sleepers also aided ma
terislly in the work, aud Conductor
Guuon OF the train and all of the train
crew labored like Trojans in rescuing
those ON the car.
The mail is said to have been the
largest ever sent over the road, and the
losses will fall heavily on this city where
about thTee-quarIeIs of the matter OIL
siusted. Registered matter was also
very heavy and valuable, consisting large
" Of remittances from firms here TO their
correspondents in Texas. There were
separate pouches for Palestine, Dallas,
TeNaIkanq, Hot Springs and
Memphis, and one from New York for
Houston, Tex. There were also twenty
eight registered packages for smaller
stations. The psper mail is said to be 4
total loss. All of the letter mail that can
be found will be brought here and every
effort will be made'to ascertain to VINO it
belongs. An express package without an
address or anything on it nv which it can
be identified containing SS7 600 was found
to-day, ard it is not unlikely others will